Pro First Place
- Sacramento XSVSemi Pro First
Place - A TeamD I First Place
- Critical PaintballD II First Place
- BallisticD III First Place
- Trouble

March 24th marked the start of NPPL,
Inc.’s fourth season of the NPPL Super 7 World Series. Teamed with
tournament promotion group, Pure Paintball Promotions, the NPPL set up
on Huntington Beach in Southern California to kick off their 5 event series
for 2006.

Huntington
Beach has been a premiere venue for paintball tournaments ever since the
first held at that location in 2003. Seated in the heart of Southern
California surfing and beach culture the town of Huntington Beach is better
known as Surf City, USA. Literally millions of people flock to Huntington
Beach each summer for activities ranging from concerts and surf competitions
to simply enjoying the sun and sand.

The Huntington Beach Pier, one of the
longest recreational piers in the nation, is a community focal point, literally
extending pedestrian traffic from the city’s downtown out over the Pacific
Ocean. It is no wonder that the Huntington Beach based NPPL, Inc.,
chose the beach just north of the Pier for the site of the first Super
7 event in 2003. Not only is the site easily accessible and filled
with the feeling of Surf City culture, but it is backed by a major pedestrian
thoroughfare, exposing thousands of people to tournament paintball.

For 2006, the city and league moved
the Huntington Beach tournament to a new venue. Not that new though
– it was simply moved to the south side of the pier. Literally next
door, and accessible from all of the same roads, parking and amenities,
the new location has some advantages in a city parking lot that is closer
to the beach area, putting the tournament trade show closer to the tournament
game fields. The grandeur and feel of the tournament has made Huntington
Beach one of paintball’s “must play” tournaments.

For the pro teams of the NPPL, Huntington
Beach is a fresh start, the first tournament of the new season. The
slate is clean in terms of ranking points. Last year’s Champions,
San Diego Dynasty started out on the same footing as second and third ranked
Sacramento XSV and Portland Naughty Dogs. The three teams to feel
the ranking crunch at the end of 2005 were Pittsburgh Smoke, Toulouse Ton
Tons, and Manchester Shockwave. As the lowest ranked pro teams, they
were stripped of their pro status, and relegated to semi-pro classification,
while the top three semi-pro teams were able to move up and play pro.
Bob Long’s Assassins finished the 2005 semi-pro season in second place,
and changed their name to the Philadelphia Assassins as they moved up to
pro for 2006. Second placed semi-pro XSNRG became New York NRG as
they went pro.

In addition to knock reclassifications
there were other changes, as teams were bought and sold in the off season.
Spesh Robinson bought the London Tigers and is now playing the team's pro
slot under the banner of the Pittsburgh All Americans, giving the crew
from PA a move straight into Super 7 Pro. Huntington Beach
Red’z Sedition also changed hands. Known as Anaheim Sedition, the
team is now under the ownership of long time paintballer and Bushwackers
owner Ron Kilbourne. While Ed Poorman of Warped Sportz remains the
owner of Avalanche, the team has changed its city affiliation from San
Francisco to St. Louis, concurrent with a significant roster change.

The
off-season, between the Commander’s Cup and Huntington Beach is traditionally
a time when team captains talk to rules committee members, and the rules
committee plans out what rule changes will be implemented for the new season.
While a number of rules changes were initially planned, the ones that were
actually codified for 2006 mainly consisted of correcting errors in the
way the rulebook was written, or clarifying existing rules that players
had trouble understanding.

The two most significant rule changes
for 2006 regarded team ranking and players leaving the Deadbox. Previously,
a player leaving the Deadbox (the station where players are required to
go after they are eliminated) would be penalized by a one-for-one infraction
(one of their teammates would be eliminated.) Because this is difficult
to enforce if a player steps out near the end of the game, the new rule
places that player under a 3 game suspension.

The change in team classifications is
not so much a change, as simply updating the rules to reflect how things
were done in the 2005 season. In 2005, the NPPL closed its pro division.
Unlike past years, teams now have to earn their way to win pro, they can’t
just pay a pro entry fee and step onto the field. Under the new rule,
a team that plays in the NXL and is not already in NPPL pro division will
be classified as semi-pro. The rule doesn’t mean that such teams
aren’t of the caliber needed to play pro, just that since they didn’t come
in before the pro division was closed, they will have to win their way
through the semi-pros to get there.

Another new feature added for the 2006
season was pay per view video. Previously, pbnation.com produced
live webcams on the main NPPL field with a higher resolution version available
as a webcast pay per view. For 2006, the level of technology escalated
to a full blown live-switched video production with multiple cameras and
even slow motion replays available as a pay per view webcast.

Friday started with a whirlwind of action
as Division III (the starting rank for Super 7 teams) through semi-pro
(the highest open-entry division.) took to the fields to play 7 on 7 two-flag
format games. Seventy-three teams played in D-III, and by the end
of games Friday each team had completed four or five of its eight preliminary
round games. The top four teams (based on average score as a performance
indicator – no true ranking would take place until the end of prelims)
played through the day undefeated. These were No Limit Indecent,
SCP Epic, Extreme Extractors and Tag.

Division II had only slightly fewer
teams, at 70. Like D-III, the top four D-II teams played the day
without dropping any games. These leaders were Sniper Force, Misfits,
Goon Squad and Island Breed. In Division I, with 36 competitors,
a handful of teams only had three games on opening day and a handful faced
five. This made average score ranking less indicative of team performance,
but interesting nonetheless. As with the lower ranked divisions,
four teams were undefeated at the end of Friday’s games. Critical
Paintball was at the top of the bunch, followed by MOD D1, though MOD D1
had only completed 3 games at this point. Bushwackers International
ranked third by average score, which spoke well of them, with five of their
games completed (i.e. less games ahead of them to possible score low.)
The fourth D-I team to make it through Friday unscathed was Team Mantis.

The semi-pro division made it unanimous
that each division would have four undefeated leaders. Here the top
four were Dynasty Dynamics, A Team, Dallas Storm and SA X-Factor.
At only 25 teams competing, Semi-Pro was the smallest division to take
to play games on Friday – not surprising, as teams which can compete at
that level are less common. It would not be until the weekend that
the pros would step onto the field for center-court action.

Saturday’s games completed the eight
games of the preliminary round for all of the divisions. For Division
III this meant their top 16 teams being selected to advance to the quarterfinal
round. While no team made it through the prelims without dropping
at least one game LAW finished in the top ranked spot with their combined
scores totaling 702 points. No Limit Indecent was only 2 points behind
them followed by Tag at 689. The Bubble – the gap between lowest
ranked team to go on to the quarters, and the next team down was sizeable.
Thirty points separated WCA Vendetta and Fury Assassins. The bottom
6 teams at the end of the prelims had a rough go of the event, not earning
a single flag hang out of their eight games.

Moving up to Division II, there were
again no undefeated teams, proving a good level of competition within the
division. Ballistic was the D-II chart topper at 698 points, followed
closely by The Outfit at 694 and Goon Squad at 691. TCP Horizontal
Reign was the last team to make the cut, edging out TCP Machine by a mere
2 points.

Bushwackers
International ripped through their eight preliminary games never missing
a max by more than 6 points. They topped Division I with 770 total
points. Mantis Factory ranked second at 735 and Critical Paintball
third at 689. Nine points separated sixteenth ranked Faction from
East Coast Underground. Despite strong performance at the top of
the division, bottom ranked Heaven n Hell, still managed a win in their
fifth game, able to take home a tale of victory from Huntington Beach.

With only 25 teams scheduled and only
24 competing, the semi-pro teams each had a 67 percent chance of making
the quarterfinals – pretty decent odds compared to the 22 percent chance
afforded to D-III teams. That said, the eight games of the prelims
still sent semi-pro teams home. Dynasty Dynamics ripped through their
games undefeated, topping the group with 785 points. Second ranked
A Team, was also undefeated at 771 points although one score of 96 was
an average of their other games filling the place of a forfeit. Third
ranked NXe Strange finished at 592, showing a solid performance lead for
the top two teams. Strange also had score from a forfeit but only
received 95 points, as a team is given 95 points or the average of their
other games, whichever is higher, for a game that their competitor forfeits.

The pro teams started their games on
Saturday. The pros only on the weekend format used in the Super 7
ensures that all of the pro games are available to be seen by spectators
who can’t make it to the tournament on a weekday. The 18 pro teams
were split into two groups of nine, with each team playing all of the other
teams in its group, for a total of eight preliminary round games.
San Diego Dynasty, the team that has won the Super 7 World Series every
year it has been held, topped the first group, playing undefeated through
the prelims for a total of 776 points. Following behind them at 518
was Oakland Empire, with Los Angeles Infamous at 496 and New England Hurricanes
at 477. With the top four teams from each group advancing, that finish
cut the Ironmen at 448. Pittsburgh All Americans were next at 430,
St. Louis Avalanche at 426. London Nexus only pulled one flag during
the prelims finishing at 145, still ahead of the Philadelphia Assassins
–13, earned with no credits for flag pulls and a –100 game score generated
by a ramping gun penalty. In the second group, it was Sacramento
XSV on top with 767 points followed by Miami Rage at 594, New York NRG
at 529 and Portland Naughty Dogs with 517. The cut knocked out DC
Arsenal at 427 points, Chicago Evil with 361, Anaheim Sedition at 318,
and Stockholm Joy Division with 268. OC Bushwackers finished the
prelims with no flag hangs at 69 points.

Sunday morning the teams again took
to the artificial turf that topped the sand of the tournament’s fields
to play out the quarterfinals. Division III through semi-pro quarterfinalists
were all divided into groups of four teams each, to play three games –
one against each team in their group. The top team in each group
would then be selected to advance into the semifinals, and be one of the
final four. The quarterfinals eliminated three fourths of the contending
teams from each division. The surviving quarterfinalists were then
ranked by their total scores to determine their seeding into the semis.

The quarterfinals reduced D-III down
to Tag, Trouble, No Limit Indecent and Extreme Extractors. D-II was
trimmed down to Island Breed, Ballistic, Stoned Assassins and The Outfit.
D-I was led by SD Aftermath followed by Critical Paintball, Redz OA Mayhem
and Faction. The Semi-Pros were topped by A-Team Impact, California
Bushwackers and Miami Raiders.

The pro quarterfinals were more arduous.
All eight of the pro teams played each other. For teams that had
been in the same prelims group it was their second time to face off, but
the first time to play teams from the other prelim group. No team
made it through their seven game set without losses, a testament to the
strength of the teams in the group. That the top two slots would
be occupied by Dynasty and XSV was a foregone conclusion to anyone who
followed their finishes over the 2005 season. Sacramento XSV was
the points leader at 584, followed by San Diego Dynasty at 521. New
York NRG ranked third with 517 points and Miami Rage fourth with 324.
It was a 79 point break along the cut that put Los Angeles Infamous in
5th place for the tournament. Portland Naughty Dogs 243 points earned
them 6th place. New England Hurricanes finished 7th with 238 points,
and Oakland Empire in 8th with 208.

From the quarterfinals, the teams moved
into the semis. In this round the top ranked quarterfinals team played
against the lowest ranked team, while the second ranked played the third.
Teams faced a best two out of three game competition, with the winners
facing each other in the finals to decide first and second, and the losers
being matched up to battle for third and fourth place.

In D-III Tag won their first game against
Extreme Extractors, but lost the second two, while Trouble won two in a
row against No Limit Indecent. In the finals No Limit Indecent won
their first game, but the second two went to Tag for third place.
Extreme Extractors fell twice in a row finishing second against first place
Trouble.

Division
II semifinals pairings were both over with back to back wins – The Outfit
over Island Breed and Ballistic defeating Stoned Assassins. Stoned
Assassins tied their first finals game with Island Breed, but won the next
two, securing third place. Ballistic beat The Outfit, but then lost
the next game. They rallied for the third and won, finishing first
place with The Outfit in second.

Like D-II, Division I had decisive semifinals
– each pairing over in two games. SD Aftermath fell to Critical Paintball
and Redz OA Mayhem fell to Faction. In the finals SD Aftermath posted
back to back wins, taking third place from Redz OA Mayhem. First
place Critical Paintball did the same to second place Faction.

Semi-Pro A Team knocked down Miami Raiders
twice in a row in the semis. Impact tried the same against California
Bushwackers, but lost their second and third games. Miami Raiders
won their first finals game against Impact, but the second game neither
team managed a flag pull or hang – Impact won on body count. The
third game also ran down the clock – no pull or hang, but this time Miami
Raiders won on elimination and live player points, finishing the tournament
in third place. California Bushwackers won their first finals game,
but the A Team turned it around, beating them for the next two games and
taking home the first place trophy.

The pro semifinals and finals and finals
were of course the center of attention, marking the culmination of the
tournament. San Diego Dynasty took down New York NRG twice in a row.
Sacramento XSV beat Miami Rage in their first game, but the second game
went to Rage. The last nail-biting game ran down the clock with no
flag pull or hang. The body count gave the game to XSV with a score
of 18 to 16, just one more XSV player eliminated would have put the finish
in Rage’s favor. As it was, Rage was sent to play New York NRG in
the finals. Rage lost the first game, but won the second. New
York NRG won the third game for a third place finish.

The big game was the finals match between
2005’s series champions, San Diego Dynasty and 2005’s second ranked team,
Sacramento XSV, the match that would determine first and second place for
Huntington Beach, and the first and second ranking positions until the
next event. The first game, XSV took down Dynasty. XSV shot
out all of Dynasty’s players and got the pull and the hang, only losing
two players in the process. The second game the win again went to
XSV with a complete elimination of Dynasty, the pull and the hang, and
only two Sacramento players in the dead box.

This first place win was quite historic
for the NPPL Super 7 World Series. Not only was it the first time
any team but Dynasty had won Huntington Beach, it also marked the first
time that Dynasty was not the top ranked team in the league. The
next shot at series ranking points would come May 19-21 on the grounds
of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.